The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II
' The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II' is a 6-issue comic series published under "America's Best Comics" - with the story been illustrated by Kevin O'Neill (Marshal Law, Nemesis the Warlock, etc.) and written by Alan Moore (V for Vendetta, Watchmen, Batman: The Killing Joke, etc.) Volume I saw the recruitment of Mina Harker (Dracula), Allan Quartermain (King Solomon's Mines, Allan Quartermain, etc.), Hawley Griffin (The Invisible Man), Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde (The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde) and Captain Nemo (20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, The Mysterious Island, etc.) to form the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by a mysterious individual called 'M' and MI5 Agent Campion Bond (James Bond's Grandfather). Sent on a mission to recover a stolen supply of the gravity-defying substance Cavorite from the crime lord Fu Manchu, the group succeeded but later discovered that M is Sherlock Holmes' old nemesis Professor James Moriarty - with the group working together to successfully defeat him. Volume II deals with the arrival of H.G. Wells' Martians (referred to in the comic as "Molluscs" due to the comic including other Martian species such as the Hither People, the Green Martians and the Sorns), with the group been summoned by M (now taken over by Sherlock Holmes' elder brother Mycroft Holmes) to find a way to defeat the invaders. The comic also includes a variety of other characters including John Carter (A Princess of Mars, etc.), Gullivar Jones ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lieut._Gullivar_Jones:_His_Vacation Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation]) and Doctor Moreau ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Island_of_Doctor_Moreau The Island of Doctor Moreau]) among others. Information and History At some point in the 19th century, an unnamed alien race invaded Mars, coming into conflict with the native Martian civilizations. The invasion of the red planet would prove a costly mistake. The invaders were pushed back by a large Martian coalition led by John Carter and Gullivar Jones. Due to these circumstances, in July 1898, the invaders were repelled and fled Mars in several cylinder-shaped refugee ships bound for Earth. They had studied the planet through "Glass Eggs" (Two-way visual surveillance devices), that had been sent to the third planet, specifically London, and which were used in observing their earthly adversaries. The invaders' launches were observed by astronomers on Earth who misidentified them as active Martian volcanoes. The invaders first made landfall in Horsell, in the South of England, in the early morning of August 5th, 1898. The public understandably believed them to be Martians, and many flocked to see the aliens, unaware of the danger. The League was dispatched to investigate the landing and witnessed the brutal onset of "Martian" aggression on a gathered crowd of onlookers. The next day, British artillery and infantry regiments guarding the Horsell Commons crater were vaporized by "Martian" heat rays, after which the invaders utilized Tripods to proceed with their advance on London. On the night before, Hawley Griffin, the Invisible Man, had secretly made a pact with the invaders promising to help them in exchange for making him the co-ruler of Earth. Griffin kept his promise to the aliens by providing them with stolen documents containing British Artillery positions, directly leading to the massacre of the British forces on August 6th. The alien advance was hindered by Captain Nemo's Nautilus at the Thames River until the Red Weed, an alien plant carried aboard the invaders' ships, overran the river, clogging the waterways and immobilizing the submarine and any other ships on the Thames. This effectively cut off all naval defenses to the besieged country. By August 9th, the invaders ravaged the south of London before gathering at London Bridge, as the other bridges with access across the Thames were destroyed by the British military to prevent their use by the enemy. The bestial Edward Hyde, having already brutally raped and slain Griffin, physically attacked a Tripod on London Bridge, ripping off a leg and tearing his way into the 'cockpit' of the machine, where he killed and began to eat its 'pilot' until the other Tripods turned their heat rays upon him, killing him. Hyde's actions turned the tide of the battle at the cost of his own life, keeping the Tripods from advancing and allowing the British military the opportunity to launch H-142, a hybrid bacterium made up of anthrax and streptococcus created by Dr. Alphonse Moreau, on the gathered Tripods, decimating the alien forces as well as killing any surviving humans in the vicinity. The release of the hybrid bacteria sealed the aliens' doom. The invasion ended in the utter defeat and extermination of the Molluscs on Earth. A cover story was concocted by the British government: that the invaders were killed by the common cold. Throughout the twentieth century, a solitary tripod stood in central London in commemoration of the war, although it oxidized and decayed notably in 2009. At this time, the majority of the population believed that the Mollusks had been A myth, even after The Dan pilot, can a contact with other aliens on Venus. Additional Information *H.G. Wells' Martians are referred to as the 'Molluscs' in this version, with it being stated that they are not originally from Mars and instead invaded the planet years earlier before a coalition of Martian species led by John Carter and Gullivar Jones. *In future volumes of "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", a lone Fighting Machine would remain standing in Central London in commemoration of the War of the Worlds, although it eventually rust and decay over time. By 2009, most people assumed that the "Martians" and the "War of the Worlds" were just a myth. *Elements of the comic would later be used in the novel The Martian War by Kevin J. Anderson, including a team being brought together by the British Government to fight the Martians, Doctor Moreau and Griffin featuring in both stories (the book reusing the first name 'Hawley' for Griffin, which was a name chosen for the character by Alan Moore in the comic after Hawley Crippen) and both stories ending with the same method been used to defeat the Martians. Furthermore, the novelization for the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_League_of_Extraordinary_Gentlemen_(film) 2003 film adaption of The League of Extraordinary Gentleman] was written by Kevin J. Anderson. Category:The War of the Worlds adaptations Category:Comics and Graphic Novels Category:Crossover Category:The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen